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How to create 360 Degree Videos

360 degree video camera set up.jpeg

360° filming is a complex affair and needs careful planning, camera placement, lighting and talent rehearsals. It is is typically recorded with a multiple camera rig or a dedicated camera that includes multiple lenses embedded into the camera. During post production the recorded footage is merged into one spherical video through a method called stitching. The colour and contrast of each shot has to be calibrated and synched with the others. The result is an impressive video similar to virtual reality set ups.

One of our favourite DOPs, Harald Capota, has recently completed several projects with some beautiful and astonishing imagery for Germany’s mega broadcaster ZDF. He gave us some insight into this project by answering a few questions on 360 degree filming.

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Have sound, will travel!

One of our Frankfurt based sound recordists, Michel Klöfkorn, just sent us this fantastic image of him in action. Wild stuff… Probably windy too 🙂

Corporate shoots, Studio shoots, Documentaries, Webcasts, SNGs, drones and drama

director of photography
After a fairly slow moving July when most people are on holiday things started hotting up mid August with a wide range of shoots throughout Europe.

We crewed and shot a wealth of corporate films and documentaries with small crews, like fixers, drivers and PAs to full blown production crews with all the bells and whistles: production managers, DOPs, additional camera operators, sound recordists, DIT experts, make up artists, gaffers, grips, set designers, translators, autocue operators, photographers and trucks full of state of the art camera kit!

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Cars, cars, cars!

We’ve just completed an exciting shoot at Germany’s famous Hockenheim race track near Frankfurt. Our UK clients came at short notice requesting crew and kit for this unusual car racing shoot.

Being as we only had a couple of days prep we were scrambling to get exactly the right crew members with the appropriate skills. We ended up providing a top crew all ex Frankfurt with the necessary experience and knowledge for specialised car shoots.

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Fixer in Bavaria

For several years now we have been providing fixers, translators and drivers for US based House Hunters International.
Our guy’s tasks are to clear shooting permits, translate from German into English and to ferry around the client’s crew. We have a wide network of fixers and their local knowledge is invaluable for overseas clients.
Our latest shoots took us to Munich and Eging am See in picturesque Bavaria.

Production crew for Google near Erfurt in Germany

We recently got a request to provide a support crew and kit for a UK company who are producing a clip for Google which explains how YouTube can be a valuable educational tool.

The German bobsleigh 2018 winter Olympic gold medallist Mariama Jamanka studied YouTube clips of the track at Pyeongchang in advance of the event, which she – as a rank outsider – then won to everyone’s surprise. The core crew of director, producer and DOP came from the UK and we provided a gaffer, grip, sound recordist, PA, driver, lighting and grip kit. We often get similar requests from production houses and broadcasters worldwide who are keen to save on travel and accommodation costs wherever they can. They often send their own creative crew like director and DOP and rely on local talent to supply the rest of the production crew, especially when you are thinking lights and grip which are too bulky to fly around the world. Furthermore our crews are bilingual so the clients get a free translation service.

Fixer in Germany

We had a request for a fixer/translator near Frankfurt to help a UK based crew to film some wacky Germans called “The Real Life Guys”.
They come up with unusual outrageous acts of science and this time they showed us their Fyling Bathtub Drone 🙂

Fujinon lenses in Munich

We just completed a corporate shoot in Munich with our local DOPs, FS7 kits, AC, Soundie, Teleprompter Operator, Make up artist and talent. We were pleased to be using the relatively new and affordable Fujinon Cine Zooms. Lenses which are not only optically top notch but are parfocal too. Hooray!

Camera crew near Nice for Clint Eastwood

We are approved suppliers for the BBC and they just approached us with a cool and unusual request for a camera crew in Southern France. Its filming Clint Eastwood’s Jazz musician son, Kyle Eastwood.
We have a couple of designated camera crews on the Cote d’Azur who regularly shoot showbiz and glamour stories for us. After the interview they’ll wetransfer the footage back to the BBC for a speedy turnaround.

Red Epic Dragon crew in Munich

We are in the midst of a corporate shoot in Munich at the moment shooting with two REDs with EyeDirects for one of our old clients in the USA.
We are providing cameras, lighting, grip and sound kit and local support crew (production coordinator, assistant cameraman, DIT, gaffer, grip, sound recordist and make up artist) for the core team from USA. Good luck guys and have a great shoot!

Webcast in Brno, Czech Republic

We enjoy an ongoing relationship producing webcasts for the American communications giant AT&T. This time we were in the picturesque and historical city of Brno in the Czech Republic.

Setting up webcasts abroad is always full of surprises and challenges, particularly when you are dealing with people from a different culture speaking an unknown language. Our core technical team, consisting of cameramen, vision mixer, sound recordist, technical assistants and all the necessary kit came from Berlin, the production crew from Texas. Communicating in English and German works very well but in the Czech Republic the major foreign language is Russian.

However, with a little practice, language barriers can be overcome using hand signals and body language. We even managed to hire some additional technical equipment from a Brno based AV specialist using hands and feet to explain our needs and hard cash to clinch the deal.

As in so many areas of professional film production it’s expected we command the highest levels of technical expertise, creativity, friendliness and reliability. In order to complete the picture though the ability to think on your feet, trouble shoot and improvise are paramount.

After weeks of planning and preparations we transformed the Brno AT&T facility into an attractive „Town Hall“ venue and the live stream reached a large international audience without a glitch. Key speakers reached out to the AT&T workforce with a variety of presentations and individual awards. To round it all off a traditional Czech folk music trio performed rousing and colorful dance acts.

Paris & Amsterdam shoot for PBS

A few weeks ago we were approached by PBS Chicago to provide a support crew for their upcoming shoot in Europe. They we planning to shoot a story about the renowned architects Nada and Marc Breitman – living and working in Paris and Amsterdam. We were more than happy to offer our production services. We supplied PBS with a sound recordist, fixer, driver and gaffer with a ton of lights 🙂 They were happy to have local support in both locations!

Watch the full show here.

Image: screenshot © PBS / Talk of the Town

Cameraman in Riga, Latvia

Last week, Bloomberg TV requested their favourite cameraman from Frankfurt to fly to Riga for an important financial conference. It was all done last minute – but our camera operator was available and up for it! He didn’t only do a great job filming conferences and interviews but also got a day’s worth of sightseeing out of it! 🙂

Shooting all over Europe and Germany

image © David Prötzel

It’s the same old story which I’m sure many of our colleagues can identify with.

Camera Crew Germany is a dedicated camera crewing and production services company and we are coordinating camera crews all over Europe on a daily basis. It’s a time intensive process and things like social media get left behind in favour of more pressing issues…

However, we all know that blogging and social media updates have to be done, unfortunately ours isn’t a daily update and becomes kind of general with many shoots covered in one article as below.

Since our last update about our snowed in crew in Switzerland and our legal videographer in Amsterdam we’ve been travelling to drier locations throughout the land and beyond.

Discovery Canada got us to interview a Munich based expert whose agenda was glowing chameleons. We knew chameleons changed colour to adapt to their surroundings, but who knew they glowed in UV light?! We then covered another shoot for them in Amsterdam, one of our Swiss clients had us filming an operation in Berlin, Bloomberg had us shooting financial news in and around Frankfurt, DHL kept us busy with corporate interviews in Bonn, one of our regular London based clients had us shooting corporate footage in Frankfurt and last but not least we had a large pharmaceutical shoot in London.

Legal videography in Amsterdam

Our legal videographer spent last week in Amsterdam working as always for US based lawyers involved in civil litigation court proceedings.
Legal videography is one of our niche specialities and takes us all over Europe. Amsterdam is understandably one of our favourites with plenty to do and see during down time.

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Bloomberg LiveU shoot in Munich

Bloomberg TV is keeping us on our toes again for a shoot in Munich last week. They requested their favourite cameraman from Frankfurt to travel to Bavaria to interview the Telekom CEO at the “Digital Live Design Conference”. We shot on the ever so popular Sony PMW200 and used the very handy Live Unit for streaming.

Amsterdam shoot

 
The PBS broadcaster out of Chicago requested we send one of our Amsterdam camera crews and equipment to shoot part of a documentary on alternative architecture. Its part of an ongoing shoot which is focusing on Nada and Marc Breitman, 2 architects living and working in Paris. We crewed the Paris shoot, too.

Amsterdam and Frankfurt film crews

After a well earned break the year kickstarted with some lively shoots in Germany and the Netherlands. Our Cologne and Frankfurt crews have been busy shooting corporates and one of our Amsterdam crews just shot for Rolex in Weerselo (Netherlands). We’re currently shooting in Paris for Chicago based PBS and preparing for a long shoot in Davos (Switzerland).
Here’s looking forward to another great year!

Looking back to a spectacular year 2017!

Before the holiday season comes to an end we would like to extend our warmest wishes and heartfelt thanks to you, our clients, our colleagues and our friends for making 2017 such a spectacular year for us at CCG.

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Panaura Octodome for Christmas

panaura octodome
Christmas is around the corner and we decided to give ourselves a great Christmas present: The one and only PanAura Octodome! It’s by far the best light we’ve got and is high up on most cinematographer’s wish list. Simply the best!

Shooting Santa

camera crew for hire
The last couple of weeks have been very busy again. We were on our way to Amsterdam for a shoot and heard that it had been cancelled at very short notice. This was followed by a series of 3 corporate shoots in Düsseldorf which were all cancelled the day beforehand. Apart from that we have had corporate and broadcast shoots in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Cologne and last but not least the whacky Santa Claus Championships in snowy Samnaun Switzerland. Our camera kits have ranged between Sony FS7, Sony A7s and Sony F800 with a few GoPros thrown in for good luck. 🙂

Crewing in Augsburg for IMG

The media giant IMG requested support crew for a week long international Ice Hockey spectacular in Augsburg, Southern Germany. Getting PAs and runners  for them was no problem but the much sought after DITs wasn’t that easy… Most productions now require a dedicated person to manage the media, its often neglected but highly recommended.
Its a relatively new job title on the film set, where film meets IT, requiring more technically savvy people to whom you can entrust all your footage. DITs are few and far between and command pretty high day rates.

Filming with the Lensbaby for ESA in the Netherlands

The History Channel requested we use the amazing Lensbaby and Dji Osmo to enhance imagery on our recent shoot in the Netherlands entitled “Return to the Moon”. The programme is exploring the very real prospects of colonising the Moon. We interviewed various experts from the ESA (European Space Agency).

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Words of Praise for our Amsterdam Camera Crew


We’re always pleased when we receive client feedback, particularly when its good:)) Our Amsterdam Camera Crew received the following from one our USA clients:
“We have received such positive feedback and I just want to extend a special thanks to you and your crews. Four two-camera shoots in three countries, interviews ranging from 20-70 minutes individually, text graphics created, edited to under 5 min and launched today. It was a great team effort and I just wanted to recognize your energy and talents. We couldn’t have pulled it off without you.”

Camera crews in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland

 
After all the car madness at the Frankfurt Motor Show we have been busy shooting for a wide variety of clients.
For Discovery Canada we crewed in Nuremberg, Austria and Bavaria shooting crazy inventions and field tests for their technology show “The Daily Planet”.
Our corporate clients kept us busy too shooting in Berlin, Brussels, Luxemburg, Cologne and Zurich.
A great mix of camera systems ranging from the Sony FS7, Sony PDW 700, DSLRs, Canon C300 and GoPros.

Camera Crews for the Frankfurt Motor Show

The Frankfurt Motor Show is a mega press event and we joined the media pack shooting for all and sundry car brands. Apart from regular camera crews we also provided a crane operator for Lamborghini.

Camera crews in Bonn

We regularly shoot corporate films for DHL in Bonn. Our trusted crews always come from nearby Cologne shooting on the ever so popular Sony FS7.

Camera crew in Linz, Austria

Discovery Channel Canada produces a daily show which focuses on all things unusual in the technical, scientific world. Last week they requested we send a camera crew from Vienna to Linz (Austria) to film the eccentric inventor of wild and useless machines, Joseph Herscher. All very tongue in cheek stuff and highly amusing.
Have a look at one of his youtube videos:

Camera crews galore

Since our mega shoots in Cologne at Gamescom we have been very busy crewing for all and sundry in Berlin, Bonn, Weinheim, Düsseldorf and Switzerland.
Happy summer days as you can see from our Morris Dancers image!

Camera crews galore at Gamescom

Cologne is the flavour of the month due to the mega gamers convention “Gamescom”. With a few days left we’re still there shooting with multiple camera crews and webcasting services…big time!

Berlin time lapse shoot


We often get requests to shoot b-roll in all major cities of Germany, such as Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt or Hamburg. This time a US based client requested we shoot b-roll and time lapse videos of various sights in Berlin. Our crew shot on the Sony FS7, the Sony a7s and the Panasonic GH5.

Camera crews and webcast crew in Cologne for Gamescom

We’re back again at Gamescom in Cologne, mecca for gamers world wide. This time we’re out in force for clients both from the USA and the UK with 5 Sony FS7 camera crews and a large webcast unit. As good as it gets!

Production services for Copenhagen based drama specialists

After weeks of preparation, finding locations, organising shoot permits, blocking off roads, gathering a small army of extras and providing support equipment and manpower, we finally got round to shooting part of an international thriller at some exciting locations downtown Frankfurt. We were proud to play host to our guests from Copenhagen and wish them every success with the rest of the shoot!

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FS7 camera crew near Cologne

A US-based agency requested a DOP and soundman with Sony FS7 kit in Jülich, near Cologne, recently. They shot high end footage as well as interviews at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre including their server and research rooms.

Timelapse shoot in Frankfurt

Last week a client requested our services in Frankfurt to film timelapse footage of prominent buildings and sights around town. We shot some high-end 4K with our Sony FS7, Sony a7s various, strategically placed gopros 🙂

Camera crew and director in London

Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt requested we shoot testimonials and b-roll at one of their facilities in London. Our local crew in London shot on two Sony F55s.

Camera crews in London and Southampton

The lovely Jill Woo from EyeMagic is keeping us on our toes again with two shoots for the US based medical educational giant WebMD. We supplied multi camera crews in both London and Southampton shooting at various clinics and patients homes all relating to the treatment of Leukaemia.

Cameraman in Amsterdam

We supply a variety of US based clients with legal videography services in Europe. This time we lucked out and spent several days shooting in party town, Amsterdam. As good as it gets!

Streaming webcasts in Munich

We recently provided multi camera, streaming and webcast facilities for a new California based client at an event in Munich. A totally different ball game from regular corporate and documentary shoots. Needless to say when you’re streaming all depends on a reliable and stable upload connection which can sometimes be tricky at remote locations. However, our end client was IBM and they made sure that the streaming connection was top notch.

Camera crews everywhere!

 
We’ve been going flat out the last few weeks crewing shoots in London, Yorkshire, Copenhagen, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Kassel and Amsterdam.

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Sound recordists all over Germany

We spent a busy week crewing for Discovery Channel Canada throughout the whole of Germany. We travelled North to South and Eat to West shooting a variety of topics ranging from solar energy which powers lights 10.000 times stronger than the sun, solar energy powered aeroplanes, a supersonic aeroplane and a good old gigantic trebuchet.

Red Bull for Camera Crew Germany

Red Bull have targeted media companies like ours and turned up the other day with a copious supply of mind boggling flavours. Our fridge is no longer politically correct but some of our guys really want to go for it :))

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Fixer in Heidelberg and Nuremberg


We regularly provide English speaking fixers/translators for the US based TV show “House Hunters International” , which airs on HGTV. This time we “fixed” for a couple of weeks for an equally international crew from the USA, England and Germany, following couples in both Heidelberg and Nuremberg searching for new homes.

Camera crews at IMEX Frankfurt


Every year Frankfurt hosts IMEX, a somewhat exotic business trade fair and we’re shooting regular XDCam there for The Fred Production Company from the UK. A colourful and lively show!
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Fishy Hamburg camera crews


We had a couple of requests for crewing in Hamburg earlier this week. As so often, testimonials, interviews and b roll for corporate CEO awards. 2 crews shooting with Sony FS7 kits along with fixers and translators.

Underwater cameraman for Discovery Channel in Germany


We have an ongoing relationship with Discovery Channel Canada supplying crews for their daily technology show The Daily Planet. We’re always covering whacky, unusual topics and inventions and this time we shot Mr. Un Yong Park with his underwater jet device Scubadec in Denzingen, Southern Germany.

FS7 camera crews in London


The wonderful Jill Woo from EyeMagic recently requested we crew a shoot for her in London. We supplied two FS7 crews travelling around London for 5 days filming patient testimonials and b roll for the US based mega online publisher for healthcare, WebMD.

Canon C300 and Sony Alpha 7s shoot in Frankfurt


Its frightening how good the quality is on the Sony Alpha 7s, making run and gun stuff much easier. This time our DOP preferred the handling and imagery of the C300 mkII for the main camera and matching the Sony footage is no big deal.

Camera crews galore!

This isn’t bionic man but our Steadicam Ace just warming up 🙂 Just one of the many highlights of our recent Arri mega shoot with all the bells and whistles in Southern Germany!